St. Cloud Fire Department Celebrates Community Support for New $43.5 Million Fire Station

(KNSI) – The St. Cloud Fire Department couldn’t be happier after gaining community support to build a sixth fire station.

Fire Chief Matt Love told KNSI News the department was delighted, “And so, our firefighters, the next morning, were just so excited. They shot off confetti cannons throughout the station, and they were just so proud.”

Love feels the biggest beneficiaries are the city’s residents. “The community won today, the community is going to get a level of service they don’t have right now. And I don’t mean to over-dramatize it, but lives are going to be saved because this referendum passed. Not only does the community understand it, they support it, and now people are going to have a different quality of life because it’s passed.”

The $43.5 million fire station and training center will be built off of 33rd Street South and County Road 74 near the new Tech High School. Response times will be cut in half in the southwest part of the city, an area of rapid expansion. Right now, response times are anywhere from eight to 12 minutes. The national standard is six minutes.

The department is on pace to respond to over 10,000 calls in 2024, a 32% increase over the last four years, stressing the need for a sixth station. Chief Love says the voters made this possible. “Thank you to the community and for valuing each other. This was a vote to help fund something that values the entire community. Everybody’s response times are going to get better.”

Now, the real work begins for the fire department’s administration. They will spend 2025 finalizing designs and working to make the complex as efficient as possible. They’ll borrow to cover construction costs in 2026, and a ground-breaking ceremony will be held. In the fall of 2027, the new station should be up and running at full strength. Property taxes will be collected for up to 20 years until the loan is paid back.

The project was approved with 61% of the vote. It will cost the owner of an average $234,000 home about $100 a year in taxes.

___